Working on my Christmas desserts...& Thanksgiving recap

I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what I want to do for dessert this year.  I've made four different lists, crossed out more than I've left uncrossed, and re-written the list on way too many scraps of paper.  Good thing we are recyclers!  I have a few favorite recipes I love to make, but we are such a small group that I feel like I am the one who ends up eating mostly everything.

I've gained ten pounds since my gallbladder surgery.  SIGH.  VERY LOUD SIGH.

A nurse friend told me last night not to stress about it, that my body needs time to adjust, but I know the truth,  I've grown lazy and have a tendency to binge eat with no ability to portion control.  I need to get off this emotional path I am on and get healthy again!  I am realistic and know that this is NOT the time of year to try to change.  Too much going on, too much stress with work and life and getting everything done in time.

So where was I?  Oh, yeah.

For Thanksgiving, I made a wonderful assortment of single serve desserts.  Mini Cannolis, mini peanut butter cheesecakes, mini apple pies and turtle cookies.  Much easier to watch how much you eat when you are only having a small piece, right?  As long as you don't keep going back for more and more, right?

I had a picture of these yummy desserts on my iPhone, but someone (who shall remain nameless) deleted all the food pics from the Photo Stream in effort to make more room in our cloud storage.  :(

So here are the links for Thanksgiving yumminess (all recipes were made with clean ingredients, of course:)

Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

Mini Cannoli

Apple Pies

Turtle Cookies

Well, I gotta say while I enjoyed not having pies, and doing something different, I think my sister-in-law and her family were disappointed.  They expected and wanted pies.  I think all the time and effort I put into making all of the above went unappreciated.  So next year they will get a boring apple pie and a boring pumpkin pie.  Hmpf.  I ended up with a lot of leftovers (left a lot at their house too) and some even went in the garbage after a few days.  So so much for that.

Now I am back to Christmas...do I stick with my traditional cookies to avoid disappointment by my guests, or do I make what I want?  LOL Or do I do a combination?  There are only eight of us; eight.  Four adults, three teen boys, and a pre-teen girl.  Most who have experienced teen boys would argue that three teen boys = six adults, so I should count them as double.  I don't want tons of leftovers, no one wants me bringing plates of cookies anymore (I used to LOVE baking for an entire weekend then giving it all away) so what to do?

I'm so overthinking this.  Kathy